How to offer a "Pre-Download" for RSC Files

ID:272936
 
Jun 21 2009, 9:14 am
Whenever some players enter my server, they have to keep downloading the RSC file (20MB), which I can forsee as being annoying.

I'd like to offer a 'pre-download' option that allows me to host my RSC on an external server, which allows people to download and keep the RSC file before entering my server.

How would I go about doing this?
Jun 21 2009, 9:50 am
Jun 21 2009, 10:04 am
In response to Garthor
"The three possible settings are:

0
do not preload any resources
1
preload compiled-in resources only
2
preload all resources including those uploaded by players
URL
preload resources from specified file "

I see four. Someone didn't take math class! XP

Thanks man.

Anyway, I wanted a method for players to download a RSC file before the server is even up. Any way for that to happen?
Jun 21 2009, 11:51 am
In response to Mista-mage123
You could give them the rsc and tell them to name it byond.rsc and put it in their cache >_>
Jun 21 2009, 12:27 pm
In response to Inuyashaisbest
...<_<.

Seems like BYOND is missing an automated process for this 'pre-downloading'...
Jun 21 2009, 1:28 pm
In response to Mista-mage123
Mista-mage123 wrote:
...<_<.

Seems like BYOND is missing an automated process for this 'pre-downloading'...

Perhaps you could take all of the coding out of your game and include the download from RSC function and host this separate 'clone' game in another hub entry. I'm not sure if it'd be stored properly but it is worth a shot.
Jun 21 2009, 3:34 pm
Mista-mage123 wrote:
I'd like to offer a 'pre-download' option that allows me to host my RSC on an external server, which allows people to download and keep the RSC file before entering my server.

As said, you can use client.preload_rsc to offload the resource file to an external web server. This is generally faster than downloading it directly from the server as BYOND servers tend to be busy with more than just uploading resource files.

client/preload_rsc = "http://www.mysite.com/resourcefile.rsc"

Any players that now connect will first download the resource file at http://www.mysite.com/resourcefile.rsc before taking on any files from the server.

Any files that are missing will be downloaded from the server as needed. You can change preload_rsc to download resources as needed for different areas.
Jun 21 2009, 3:37 pm
In response to Mista-mage123
Mista-mage123 wrote:
Anyway, I wanted a method for players to download a RSC file before the server is even up. Any way for that to happen?

That's a different thing altogether.

It's possible to send the resource file to players. If they open it with the BYOND Pager ("open with" feature in BYOND), it'll put the resources in their cache. Without a .dmb file with in the same directory, it won't actually run a game, only update the cache.

For some reason though, BYOND doesn't bind .rsc files to the BYOND Pager when installing, so you'll have to manually use "Open With..." or add an .exe file that opens the resource file with BYOND.
Jun 22 2009, 4:58 am
In response to Android Data
Android Data wrote:
It's possible to send the resource file to players. If they open it with the BYOND Pager ("open with" feature in BYOND), it'll put the resources in their cache. Without a .dmb file with in the same directory, it won't actually run a game, only update the cache.

For some reason though, BYOND doesn't bind .rsc files to the BYOND Pager when installing, so you'll have to manually use "Open With..." or add an .exe file that opens the resource file with BYOND.

Could you explain how to do this a bit more?